


Invisibility

by babyworm



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Getting Together, Keith and Shiro are Siblings, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pidge and Keith are best friends, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Teacher Matt, Teacher Shiro, transfer student
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-08-29 14:51:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8494147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babyworm/pseuds/babyworm
Summary: Keith hates high school. It's boring and mundane with a constant stream of assignments and unnecessary drama. He keeps a graduation countdown in his locker and can't wait for the day that he never has to step foot in the school halls ever again. But one day, a boy named Lance transfers into a few of his classes, and Keith thinks maybe it wouldn't be so bad for time to slow down, as long as it means he can spend some of it with him.





	1. The Arrival

“Invisibility,” Keith answered when Pidge asked him what superpower he would like to have, which was a strange question from his logic-loving friend. 

“Invisibility, Keith? Really? You’re such a cliche.” she replied, staring at him in disbelief. 

“And you’re such as ass. Why do you care anyway?” he asked. 

“Ugh, it’s a dumb question, I know, like what’s the point of even discussing a hypothetical situation that is, you know, hypothetical! But my engineering professor keeps telling us that although we have ample brains, we lack the creativity and imagination to inspire today’s youth and create something the world has never seen before! I didn’t work my fucking ass off to get into this genius school to inspire, Keith! It’s ridiculous!” Pidge was practically gasping for air as she ranted about her professor, a mustached man named Coran. From what Keith understood, he was a highly intelligent yet somewhat eccentric individual who drove Pidge up the wall, or as she liked to say “batshit crazy.” 

“Why couldn’t I have just gone to school with you! Then I wouldn’t have to deal with this shit AND I would have the opportunity to be a major pain in the ass to my brother every single day. Do you realize what a disservice it is to all of humanity that my brother is your physics teacher and you have yet to pull a single prank on him all year? You know it’s waste, don’t you? An astronomical waste.” Pidge’s voice got progressively louder and Keith couldn’t help but keep his head down, embarrassed and fully aware that a few of the other passengers were now looking in their direction. 

“Yes, Pidge, I am fully aware that you think my existence is a waste, since you tell me that every single day.” Keith said back in a quieter voice hoping she would get the hint to use her damn indoor voice. “But like I keep telling you, I don’t want my home life and my school life to like, you know, mesh. Plus, the year isn’t over, so cut me some slack.” 

“Yeah, I get that you don’t like meshing or whatever, but to not even talk to Shiro on campus is a little weird, isn’t it? Would it be a huge deal for everyone to know that the mechanics teacher is your brother? How did you and both our brothers end up at one school, and I get stuck at nerd school. Maybe I’ll just drop out secretly and transfer into your classes so we could be little shits and make our brothers cry.” Pidge had a devious look on her face as if she was already putting together some evil masterplan. 

Keith thought for a moment. It’s not like he was ashamed of being at the same school as his brother or even upset about it. He just didn’t think that anyone needed to know. He liked to keep his personal life to himself. Keith wanted to avoid another huge rant from Pidge, so he was thankful that his stop was coming up. He slung his messenger bag over his shoulder and walked towards the subway doors. “Sorry, Pidgey. You were one of few to be selected for nerd school. Suck it up, and inspire! Think outside the box!” Keith drew out an imaginary box in the air with his hands and Pidge rolled her eyes. Keith continued, “As my homie Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Believe you can and you’re halfway there!” Keith laughed as he walked out the door and Pidge flipped him off in response. One of the mothers on the subway shot Pidge a look of disapproval, but Pidge didn’t notice, too busy thinking about her assignment to care.

——

Keith thought more about his answer to Pidge’s question as he walked through the halls to get to his locker. Anonymity was a huge part of Keith’s life. He was good at being unseen and preferred it that way. Keith had a modest group of friends at school. They were close enough to occasionally eat lunch together but distant enough to not hang out outside of school grounds. He wasn’t popular enough to get noticed, but not lame enough to be outcasted. He was somewhere in the middle, in that gray area of his high school hierarchy. As he rummaged through his locker to get his textbooks, his lab partner walked by and gave Keith a nod. Keith nodded back, and his partner continued to walk down the hall. That was pretty much the extent that Keith liked to interact with the other students at his school. He didn’t dislike anyone, he just didn’t see the point in reaching out to people now that it was his last year of high school. Soon they would all be going their separate ways and Keith would be going somewhere far, far away where he would never have to see anyone’s face ever again. He looked at the countdown he taped to his locker door. Only eight more months until graduation…you can survive until then. He shut his locker and made his way to homeroom. 

He walked in the door along with a stream of students and sat down in his usual seat. Back corner, near the door. Easy to get in, quick to get out. (A that’s what she said joke popped in his head in Pidge’s voice. He shook his head to get rid of the thought.) As the other students sat in their seats one by one, Keith listened to some of their conversations. “I watched a documentary on Netflix last night…do you think it’s possible aliens are among us?” “Look, Bee Movie was a mistake, but you have to admit that it was also the best mistake ever created!” Keith had no idea what anyone was talking about and blocked it all out and sighed. He was over high school. 

Shiro often told him to enjoy his last year of high school and make some memories and meaningful friendships. Keith always ignored him. He thought it was so easy for his brother to make friends. He was reliable, friendly, and always ready to help those in need and offer advice, though Keith never actually took any of it. He was so hard to compare to, which was one of the reasons that Keith wanted so desperately to keep their relationship a secret from the other students and faculty. One word of him being Shiro’s little brother would send a whirlwind of “but your brother was so smart” and “Shiro never had to be told to take his headphones off during class” remarks his way, and he wanted no part of that. He got enough of it from their parents, and Shiro being Shiro always took Keith’s side calmly explaining to his parents that just because he excelled in something didn’t mean that Keith had to as well and that Keith had his own set of unique skill sets that should be acknowledged. 

Shiro taking his side always made him feel even more incompetent, not that he could tell Shiro to stop since he so genuinely cared about him to the point that he even promised Keith to keep their family ties under wraps when he first began working at the school a few years ago. He was grateful for that and made a mental note to be a better brother and buy Shiro like a fruit basket or a tie, something that would show his appreciation. Keith wondered what Shiro would prefer when their homeroom teacher walked in the classroom. 

She was a striking woman with long silver hair and thick British accent. Despite her beauty she was strict as hell and when her male students tried to flirt with her she wouldn’t have any of it and would send them to detention. She scared the crap out of Keith, but for reasons he didn’t understand, her expression seemed to soften anytime they interacted. She suddenly clapped her hands to grab the class’s attention. 

“Good morning class, I hope you all had productive weekends! Before we get started, we have a new transfer student here so let’s give them a warm welcome!” For a brief moment, Keith actually believes that Pidge kept her promise and transferred to his school. But his thoughts are interrupted when a tall brunette with tanned skin walks into the classroom with long strides and makes his way over to the center of the room. He flashes a cocky smile that makes its way to his soft blue eyes and Keith doesn’t have to look around to know that everyone is staring. Keith is suddenly aware of his every movement and racing heartbeat and the fact that his mouth is probably hanging wide open and gets annoyed at himself for getting all worked up just because of a new kid that Keith already decided he would have nothing to do with. Well…maybe there are a few things I’d do with him…

“Why don’t you introduce yourself?” Allura asks him and Keith’s thoughts comes to a halt once again.

He flashes a toothy grin and looks at Keith, or at least Keith thinks he might be looking at him, but then he erases the thought when he makes finger guns to the girl next to him who is clearly swooning and says, “The name’s Lance McClain, but you can call me tonight.” Allura sighs realizing that her new transfer would be a piece of work, but gestures to a seat on the opposite side of the room from Keith, which he is suddenly grateful for. 

He’s glad the new guy seems like a total ass. He didn’t need to be crushing on someone, let alone the new kid. You’re such a cliche. Maybe Pidge knows him better than he gives her credit for. But this time, he’s pretty sure he can continue the rest of his high school career invisible, with no one holding him back and no one getting to close, even if that someone has long limbs and really nice hands, and oh god, there’s that smile again. Keith really had to get a grip. He slouches back in his seat and tries really hard to concentrate on the work in front of him. He glances up at the clock and sighs. Only 5 hours and 39 more minutes until the day is over. 

——

Lance was running late. Not that this was anything unusual, but today was an especially bad day to be late considering that it was his first day at his new high school. His dad had to move around a lot for his job and while his younger siblings always protested having to move and make new friends again, Lance was always excited at the idea of what could happen. A new high school meant new people which most importantly meant new people for Lance to flirt with. He had a good feeling about this city. The last city they lived in would have been decent had it not been for Nyma. Lance fumed just thinking about her. She strung him along for months knowing that Lance would do anything for her, and well, long story short, the last time he saw her was when she was walking away with his wallet waving goodbye to him while Lance was tied to a tree. Not one of his best moments. Needless to say, Lance was ecstatic when his father announced their moving plans. He could really use the fresh start. 

As he and his little sister, Emma, parted ways to go to their respective classrooms, she turned around and yelled, “Hope you don’t lose your wallet!” He could hear her laughter as she ran down the hallway. She could be such a brat sometimes, but then again, she probably got it from him, and the thought made him proud. Lance checked his class schedule again and searched for the room number printed on the piece of paper. Room 225, huh? This should be interesting. 

After having had so many first-days-of-schools, he was a bit of a pro. He expected lots of paperwork, boring lectures, and lots of small talk. What he didn’t expect was to have such a gorgeous homeroom teacher. She welcomed him as he approached the door and even though he had only been in his new school for a good seven minutes at most, he was pretty sure he was already in love. He raised his eyebrows and was about to make some remark on her shining aquamarine eyes but she spoke with the sternness and authority of a queen putting Lance immediately back in his place. 

“Hello, you must be Lance, before we walk in the classroom I want you to know that I demand your respect and for you to be respectful of others. If you work hard in my classroom, you will succeed. Now, follow me.” She gracefully made her way into the classroom not even giving Lance a chance to respond. As he waited for his cue to introduce himself he quickly scanned the classroom. Hm, there was a cute girl in the third row, cute jock in the fourth row Lance definitely wanted to get to know, and in the back of the classroom another boy piqued his interest. Pale skin, red jacket, beautiful eyes, and wait… no… that’s not… a MULLET, is it? Who even has a mullet these days? It’s 2016! But those fingerless gloves are pretty hot, and… 

“-troduce yourself?” Allura looked at Lance expectantly. He was so lost in thoughts about that kid’s mullet he hadn’t been paying any attention to what Allura was saying. Not that it mattered, because he was a pro. He looked in the mullet boy’s direction but suddenly feeling shy seeing the boy’s eyes on him, he instead looked to the girl next to him who was definitely giving him the look. Ha, why not make this interesting. He threw out his famous one liner and even some finger guns, for good measure, and the girl laughed in response. He knew he’d probably get a scolding from Allura, especially after her little speech about being respectful, but you only have one senior year in high school. He wanted to have as much fun as possible. 

Allura pointed him to an empty seat next to the cute girl he checked out earlier. She introduced herself and they began making some small talk about where he was from and what he thought of the new school. He snuck a quick glance at mullet boy who was now interested in his assignment. Yup…that’s definitely a mullet…but strangely, it kind of suits him. Lance smiled. He was pretty sure he was going to like it here.

——

Lance’s day was pretty much how he expected it would be, although he hadn’t foreseen befriending a member from the school’s welcoming committee. Well, unofficial welcoming committee. He was a big friendly guy who spoke very excitedly and wore an orange headband around his dark brown hair. 

“Hey! You’re new, right?” He smiled widely at Lance as he made his way over.

“What gave it away?” Lance asks.

“Well, a lot of things, but I think it was the look of loneliness in your eyes that really gave it away, plus the fact that you’re holding a school map, which only fresh meat and transfers do. Considering you’re in my mechanics class, you’re not the former, so yeah, friendless new kid, look no further, I will be your guide!” Hunk joked, cracking a smile.

“Whoa, whoa! I, Lance McClain, have never been lonely in my entire life! I have tons of friends. Tons.” Lance glares at Hunk who only smiles back at him.

“Haha! Just messing with you dude, I’m sure you have tons of imaginary friends, but since they’re, well, imaginary, let me take their place and show you around campus! The name’s Hunk Garrett!” He playfully smacks Lance in the back and Lance realizes that he means no harm.

“Well…I could use some actual friends. People were starting to give me weird looks for talking to myself.” Lance smacks Hunk back and plays along. “Show me the way, Hunky Monkey!” 

“Hunky Monkey? Seriously? That is so elementary, Lance NoChance at getting a date.” 

“Hunk, please, if there’s one thing I do have, it’s skills, particularly in the dating department.” A girl he recognizes from one of his classes walks by and Lance gives her his best smolder. She laughs and continues walking. “Uh, that wasn’t exactly the best demonstration of my skills, but I can assure you that I definitely have them!” 

“Yeah, yeah, just follow me, I’ll show you to your next class, Lance McLame.” 

Lance groaned at Hunk’s humor but hurried to his side to begin his school tour, glad to have met someone nice enough to show him around. They spend the next 20 minutes thoroughly going over every nook and cranny and Lance thinks he knows the place inside and out. They take a seat on a bench outside and sip blue raspberry slushes from the school cafeteria. 

“ICEE that you have good taste in frozen beverages.” Lance says to Hunk holding up his cup, cracking up at his own pun.

“I think you mean, berry good taste!” Hunk says back and they both laugh appreciating the other’s reverence for bad puns knowing that they just met their friend soulmate.

“So, Lance, anyone catch your eye here at school?” Hunk asks once he catches his breath.

A certain mullet pops into his head, but Lance shakes his head. “Good things take time, bro.” he says to Hunk. 

“Bro.” Hunk says. They clink their slush cups together. 

——

Keith walked into his last class of the day a few minutes early. He took his seat, headphones on, and pulled out his physics textbook as he waited for Matt to begin class. It was strange at first having Matt as a teacher, since Keith and Shiro had grown up with the Holt siblings since infancy. Keith’s father and Mr. Holt had worked together at a local flight school for a number of years, so it only seemed fitting that now Matt and Shiro worked together as well. Nothing was strange about that, but what was strange was how great of a teacher Matt was. Growing up with the mischievous older Holt mostly meant wedgies and injuries from pranks gone wrong for Keith, but seeing him in a classroom environment really changed Keith’s perspective of him. Well, during school hours anyway. Off campus and after school Matt still found little ways to make hell for both him and Pidge who never went down without a fight. However, they all agreed that during school hours, pranks were off limits. School was the safe zone where they were simply teacher and pupil, or was it? Keith remembered how he found his physics book lodged in green jell-o when he opened his locker last week. He would have to get back at him for that. 

The last bell rang and more students began taking their seats. Keith looked up and saw that Lance was in his physics class as well, taking a seat in the row next to him. Thankfully there was some distance between their seats. Lance looked at Keith and grinned before making conversation with the girl behind him. Keith didn’t know whether or not he reciprocated the gesture, too focused on trying to act as casual as possible. Dammit why am I always so aware of myself when he’s around? Act normal, Keith, but what is your normal? Keith took his headphones off and tried to listen to Lance’s conversation. “So far, so good! Met a cool guy named Hunk who showed me around…” Keith couldn’t make out the rest of his conversation, but it seemed like he was already making friends with a lot of people in his classes despite it only being his first day. Keith was a little jealous of the fact that he seemed to converse so easily with others, and a little jealous that it wasn’t Keith he was conversing with.

He wondered what he would talk to Lance about, if the opportunity ever came. He hoped it would. And he hoped that Lance wanted to talk to him, too. He snuck a peak at Lance and smiled. Not a bad way to end the day.


	2. Sleeping Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is a sucker for The Princess Diaries and Lance makes a bad first impression.

Sleeping Beauty

“So? How did your assignment go? You know, the one where you had to pull inspiration and creativity out of your tight ass.” Keith asked Pidge on their daily commute to school. 

Pidge acted horrified and said, “Keith! Watch your fucking language! There are children on this subway!” Keith rolls his eyes at his friend and awaits an actual response. 

“It went pretty damn well, actually! After you left, I began pushing some ideas around until I finally had a brilliant one! I wondered just how far I could take this superpower assignment. How ridiculous is too ridiculous, you know? I thought maybe I could go just far enough to push Coran’s buttons and make him rethink his future projects, so I came up with the ability to communicate with robots!” Keith raised an eyebrow not having any idea as to where she is going with this. Pidge continued, “But not just any robots, Keith, listen up because this is the kicker. The robots are actually mechanical lions that people, or paladins or pilots or whatever, would ride into alien battles up in space! To save the universe!” Pidge’s eyes began to water as she cracked up, and even Keith cracked a smile. 

“What the actual fuck, Pidge. There’s no way your professor thought that was a quality answer.” 

“But he did, Keith! That’s what so hilarious! He actually got so excited he wanted to discuss more about it with me during his office hours! So I did, which is why I didn’t ride home with you yesterday because he was interested in the possible mechanics behind the lions!” Pidge was definitely crying now. Keith was relieved that he didn’t make the cut into nerd school. It sounded like a major pain in the ass. Robot lions? What? Keith had enough to deal with at school…or not deal with. He definitely wasn’t thinking about a certain transfer student with a killer smile and messy brown hair. Definitely.

“So what’s new with you? Any other items of yours get suspiciously encased in jell-o?” Pidge asked, a big smirk on her face.

“No, not since last week…wait…I never told you about that! It was you? How did you break into my school and my locker without me knowing? Unless…you got help from Matt which is against the rules, Pidge! You can receive help from the enemy!” Keith glared at Pidge. 

“Not Matt. Your brother! Haha! I just told him I wanted to leave a surprise for you in your locker to brighten up your day and he let me in after one of his tutoring sessions. Did you know there’s a master key that opens up all the lockers in your school? Talk about convenient! It was like taking candy from a baby! Or…giving jell-o to a baby?” 

It suddenly made sense why Shiro asked him if he received something from Pidge that day. That jell-o made a serious mess in his locker and having to explain to passersby why he was pulling a book out of jell-o in the first place was embarrassing enough. So much for keeping a low profile. Damn Shiro and his neutrality act. Pidge, Keith, and Matt took their prank war seriously! Shiro just had to be Switzerland. In doing so, he ended up being the accomplice in many pranks that ended badly for Keith without him even realizing it. His trusting nature made him naive. He was too easy a target to pull pranks on and the guilt that followed after pranking him never outweighed the satisfaction that came from it. So the other three decided that pranking Shiro was against the rules. He was just too nice a guy. 

“It’s not over, Pidge. I know you always underestimate me, but you will soon see my final form!” Keith stood up with his belongings and stuck a finger in Pidge’s face and flicked her nose. 

Pidge swatted his hand away laughing, “Okay, Frieza. Show me what you got!” 

——

The day was almost over and Keith was having a hard time keeping his eyes open in Physics. He stayed up late doing his homework and didn’t get much sleep. Well, that’s not entirely true. He stayed up late kind of doing homework and mostly watching his favorite guilty pleasure movie The Princess Diaries. Julie Andrews was an elegant goddess and he definitely related to Mia Theromopolis pre-princess of Genovia. Just a kid wanting to get through high school without any major incidents. The only difference between them, well other than the whole princess thing, was that she had Michael. Keyboard playing M&Ms loving Michael, who was probably the first person to make Keith question his sexuality. Watching the movie always made him feel nostalgic, but because of his movie night, he was seriously going to pass out on his desk. 

Matt rolled an old fashioned TV cart into the classroom and held up a video tape. “Do you kids even know what this is?” He asked the class. “This is an ancient relic that we call, the video tape. When placed inside this machine called the VHS, it plays a moving picture. Amazing, isn’t it?” The class groaned saying of course they knew what a VHS was, and Matt turned the lights off and hit play. With the lights off, Keith looked to his left at Lance who was taking notes on the movie. Keith was surprised that despite his seemingly reckless personality, he had really nice handwriting. He was actually more surprised that he was even taking notes at all. Lance must have felt Keith’s gaze on him, because he turned his head to look in his direction, but Keith quickly turned his focus to the TV. The movie was extremely boring, and the awful 80’s sci-fi music made it impossible for Keith to take it seriously, but he folded his arms on his desk and rested his head on top of them watching the host ramble on about energy particles. 

——

“Keith…” Lance says his name softly as he reaches out and grabs his hand simultaneously lacing their fingers together. Lance faces Keith, looking into his eyes, smiling with his teeth, saying nothing.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Keith looks at Lance, confused, but doesn’t try to pull his hand away from his grasp. 

What is happening? His heartbeat is so damn loud he could swear anyone within a ten mile radius could hear it. Lance leans in closer to him, wrapping his arms around Keith’s small frame, and before Keith can even process the situation, he instinctively leans in and meets Lance halfway, their lips finding each other in a kiss soft and sweet. Keith’s heart races and it feels so good, so natural, and he reaches up and wraps his own arms around Lance’s neck. Their kiss only lasts a minute and when they break apart, Keith opens his eyes and looks up at Lance and takes in his beautiful face and sparkling eyes and the warmth of his hands on back, and… wait, what? Why is Lance wearing a shrek costume and why are we in a Taco Bell? And what is that annoying flash of light? Don’t tell me this is a— 

“Wakey wakey, Keith!” 

Keith immediately shot up in his seat, his eyes wide taking in the scene before him. He is greeted by Matt taking pictures of him with his phone, which explains the annoying flash appearing in his dream. Keith’s cheeks burn from the humiliation of having the everyone’s attention on him. Matt leaned in close so that only Keith could hear his words and shook his phone in Keith’s face. “Wait ’till Shiro and Pidge get a hold of these!” He shot Keith a devious smile and chuckled before returning to the front of the class. Keith took back every nice thing he ever said about Matt being a respectable teacher and pulled his hood over his head. 

He thinks about burying himself into the ground and never coming back to the surface when he suddenly remembered what his dream was about, and more importantly, who it was about, and shoots a quick look at Lance who is staring back at him, a playful smirk on his lips. Please tell me I wan’t saying his name in my sleep! I’m pretty sure I don’t sleep talk. He can’t read minds right? He doesn’t know what I dreamt about, right? I mean if people could read minds, I’m sure Pidge would have told me about it by now, and oh my god, this is NOT how I wanted him to notice me, what if he thinks I’m some kind of weirdo and what if he thinks I’m—

“Cute.” Lance says with a smile.

Wait, what? Did I hear that right? And before he can open his mouth, Matt is already grabbing the class’s attention back to the front of the room and Lance is back to focusing on his notes. Really focusing. Keith reasons that he was probably responding to something else or was just mocking him but what if he does have psychic powers and was referring to my gay ass dream? Keith wanted to die and he let his head fall to his desk once more hoping Pidge would hurry up and invent some invisibility serum. 

His phone buzzes in his pocket. He slowly pulls it out knowing that whatever it is, he won’t like it. He inwardly groans when he sees a sleeping photo of himself displayed on the screen in the group chat shared by Matt, Pidge, and Shiro. He scrolls down to read the messages.

Wild Pidgey: HAHAHA!!!! KEITH!!! THIS IS THE CONTENT I LIVE FOR!!! IF U ZOOM IN U CAN EVEN SEE A LITTLE BIT OF DROOL LMAO

SHE ROW: Keith…are you not getting enough sleep? Are you feeling okay?

Wild Pidgey: STAY UP LATE WATCHING THE PRINCESS DIARIES MOVIES AGAIN? NO SPOILERS, KEITH. U KNO I HAVEN’T WATCHED THE SECOND ONE YET!

EMO: Wow, thanks, guys, and screw you, Pidge. Spoiler alert: ur dead. 

Keith stuffs his phone back in his pocket ready for class to be over so he can tackle Matt to the ground and into another dimension.

——

Lance sat up straight in his seat and concentrated on the movie playing in class. It was meant to reinforce their homework assignment and was going over the conservation of energy and how although energy can be transformed into different types, the total amount of energy in a system remains the same. Lance thought that if Matt really wanted the class to understand the conservation of energy, they could just take a nap or something. Lance felt someone poke him in the back and turned around to see who the culprit was. It was the girl that sat behind him, Shay. Shay was a really tall, really friendly girl who had introduced herself to Lance on his first day. They bonded over their favorite childhood cartoons (Lance’s was Rocket Power, he always wanted to be Otto, and Shay’s was Recess. Both solid shows in Lance’s opinion). Shay smiled and pointed to the row next to him. Lance followed her gaze and saw that she was looking at Mullet Boy, who was sitting on the opposite side of the aisle from him. Just his luck, he had to stare at a mullet for two of his six classes five days a week. That stupid mullet. 

Lance realized that Mullet Boy was sleeping, his head on his desk laying on top of his crossed arms, the students around him giggling and pointing. Looks like he knows how to conserve energy. Lance felt a smile creep on his lips. He was a pretty cute sleeper. His mouth was slightly open and he looked so peaceful. So unlike that naturally brooding face he usually sported. He wondered what he was dreaming about. His visions of grandeur took over as he wondered if Mullet was dreaming about him. Ha. I wish. 

After the video ended, the attention of the other students grew until Matt realized what was going on and he smiled as he put a finger to his lips signaling to the class to be quiet as he pulled out his phone and took some close ups of the boy sleeping. Lance wondered how he could get the photos from Matt after class without being too obvious. They could prove to be excellent blackmail material in the future. After Matt had taken a few quality shots, Mullet wakes up, his face a combination of horror and confusion. The class laughs at him thankful they weren’t the ones caught sleeping. 

“Wakey wakey, Keith!” Matt coos.

Lance realizes that it’s the first time he has heard Mullet Boy’s name. Keith…it suits him.

Matt leans in close to him and says something Lance can’t make out, but by the look on Keith’s face, he isn’t happy and Lance smiles when he sees Keith pull his hood over his head. So dramatic. Lance notices Keith suddenly looking at him. But the way he looks with his hood on, and his baby sleeping face is so… “cute.” Keith’s eyes widen as the words leave his mouth, and Lance’s face is on fire realizing that he just said his thoughts out loud and to his horror Shay is laughing again. Matt claps his hands in an attempt to calm the class down and goes over a problem from their homework assignment, and Lance looks down at the notes he took during the movie hoping his face isn’t as red as he thinks it is. He scribbles on his paper to make it seem like he’s paying attention but Shay sees everything he’s doing and she whispers, “smooth” in his ear making the situation even worse. Lance pushes so hard on his pencil that the lead breaks and makes a hole in his paper. Real smooth.

——

The bell rings and the class hurries out of the class, done for the day, and Lance decides that he should say something to Keith to clear the air and explain that he was definitely not saying cute in reference to him and makes up an elaborate backstory that holds a legitimate reason as to why he said what he said, but Keith is walking full speed toward the door and Lance doesn’t have time to finish his story, and without thinking, he grabs his arm. Keith looks over his shoulder with a confused and startled look on his face and Lance immediately forgets everything he was planning to say and just stands there frozen. Lance is trying to remember what his story was when Keith breaks the silence.

“What do you want?” Keith finally asks in a quiet voice. Lance realizes that this is the first time they have spoken to each other, and so far, it’s not going well. 

Shit. He’s angry. Lance opens his mouth and says the first thing he could think of hoping it will make sense. 

“Sleep well?” 

Keith’s face contorts and he yanks his arm free from Lance’s tight grip. Without even responding he runs after Matt who is down the hall laughing with his phone in the air. Lance wants to punch himself in the face. Sleep well? What was that, Lance? You’re normally so smooth, and now you just look like an asshole! Dammit! He groans and smacks a hand to his face. He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up to see Shay’s sympathetic face. 

“Before you say anything, don’t.” He says to her. She gives his shoulder a squeeze and walks away leaving Lance standing there alone with his thoughts, regret washing over his face. Why did you say that? He’s never going to want to talk to you again! So much for a good first impression. Ugh!

His pity party doesn’t last long, as he hears a familiar voice booming down the hall, “Laaanceeee!!!” He sees Hunk running toward him and he gasps for air as he tries to get his next words out. “Lance, We n-need to hurry!” Hunk grabs him and runs full speed again almost dragging a very confused Lance in the process. They run for a good five minutes with Lance screaming the entire way and he thinks he’s going to pass out, his backpack bobbing up and down with every step and almost falls to the floor when they reach their destination— the cafeteria. Hunks makes Lance sit down at a nearby table and comes back a few minutes later with a tray. He sits down and slides it over to Lance.

“…you made me run…for…pudding?” Lance looks down as his cafeteria tray and pokes the brown substance with his plastic fork. He watches it jiggle back and forth and raises and eyebrow to his friend. “This better be good.” 

Hunk is beaming and says, “Just trust me, man, one bite and you’ll be enraptured. Hunk digs into his pudding making satisfied noises every now and then. He looks up at Lance expectantly and says, “Eat!” Lance obeys and takes a spoonful of the pudding and puts it in his mouth. It’s delicious. “DAMN!” Lance exclaims as he inhales the rest of the dessert. Hunk is pleased and laughs as he stands up. “Wait here! I’ll get more!” Lance nods in agreement and when he finishes his pudding he looks around the room but there’s no mullet in sight. Lance sighs. He really fucked up. He’s lost in thought until Hunk returns and drops another pudding in front of him. Lance gratefully accepts it, and pulls the plastic wrapper off the top of the cup. 

“So do you always run to the cafeteria every time they sell pudding? I mean it doesn’t look like they’ll run out any time soon. I didn’t even know the cafeteria was still open after school.” Lance inspects his friend who is clearly hiding something from him. 

“Well…no…but a little bird told me that you might be in need of a pick-me-up, and as your friend, I take the job very seriously!” 

Lance smiles, appreciative of the big friendly giant in front of him. He is about to ask who the little bird is when he sees Shay waving to him from a few tables behind them. She holds up her own pudding and winks. Lance smiles back. 

“You know Shay?” Lance asks and as soon as her name is spoken, Hunk’s face turns red. “Ohhhh,” Lance continues, “you know Shay…is she your girlfriend or something?” 

Hunk speaks up with a mouth full of pudding and says, “No! It’s not like that! She’s not my girlfriend, she’s just a girl that I met that I admire very much. Honest!” He rams another bite of pudding in his mouth and Lance just nods and says okay okay, and that he’ll keep Hunk’s secret. While Hunk tries again to convince Lance that their relationship is completely platonic, Lance feels a rush of warmth for his new friends, thankful for their kindness and taste in dessert. He finishes up his second pudding feeling a little better, but the look on Keith’s face as he broke from Lance’s grasp sticks in his mind, and he knows that no amount of pudding can make him forget that.

——

Keith had never felt so relieved to hear the school bell ring. He wanted to forget this day ever happened and everyone else to forget about it too, but in order to do that, he had to erase the evidence from Matt’s phone before he could put it on the school’s portal. He knew first hand how evil the older Holt could be, and didn’t want to take his chances. He hurried through the door to chase after Matt who had seen Keith launch out of his seat and took his leave first laughing maniacally. He was almost out the door when he felt a pull on his arm. He turns around and sees the last person he expects to see standing there. Lance. A million thoughts run through his head as he waits for Lance to say something, but he doesn’t. He just stands there looking at Keith with a weird look on his face. He can’t let Matt get too far from him, so he decides to speed up the process. 

“What do you want?” he hears himself ask. He winces at his own words, sounding harsher than he intended.

“Sleep well?” Lance asks. Lance’s face impossible to read. 

Keith’s heart stops and anger takes over. He was just fucking with me the entire time. He doesn’t think I”m “cute,” he was just making fun of me. God, Keith, how idiotic can you be, believing that maybe he would console you for being made fun of? You dream about him kissing you but the reality is that he doesn’t give a damn about you! Keith is disgusted with himself for expecting anything else from Lance and rips his arm free choosing to focus on finding Matt to distract himself from the hurt he feels welling inside of his chest.

He manages to chase Matt to the workshop Shiro held his classes in and jumps on his back, Matt’s phone falling out of his hands and plummeting to the concrete, sliding under one the work benches. The two land with a big thud and Shiro looks over his own workbench at the two bodies crumpled on the floor. His classes were over for the day and he was hoping to enjoy a quiet afternoon tinkering with the new shipment of parts he got in. It didn’t seem like that was going to happen, but Shiro smiled anyway not minding the other two’s arrival.

“Should I even ask?” He puts his screwdriver down and stands up to walk over to them picking up Matt’s thankfully damage-free phone from the ground on his way over. He reaches his hand out and helps his brother up first who accepts it and gets off of Matt who is saying profanities under his breath. Now that school was out and no students were around, his teacher facade was broken and he was back to being himself. 

“A little help?” Matt asks. Shiro extends his other hand to his friend and laughs pulling him up. Matt dramatically brushes dust off of his work pants and takes the phone from Shiro’s hand, holding it tightly. “Your brother is a demon.” he says to Shiro who looks at Keith and nods as if he’s expecting him to apologize to Matt for throwing him down. 

Keith sighs. “Tell your friend here to delete those damn photos of me sleeping! It’s humiliating!” Matt begins to protests but after looking at Shiro’s face, he relents and deletes the pictures and shows his camera library to the other two. Damn Shiro and his intimidating glare! “Look! Happy? They’re gone!” He shakes his phone in Keith’s face for emphasis and Shiro smiles, satisfied. 

“You’re the the biggest handful of all my students!” Matt cries, “But you’re just so damn cute when you sleep!” He laughs and puts Keith in a headlock and gives him a noogie. Matt knows Keith hates it when others touch his hair but Keith relents, too exhausted from the day’s activities to fight back. When Matt finally releases him, Keith gives him an apology and Matt waves him off as if to say it’s no big deal. Matt walks toward the door to leave and says his goodbyes to the two and then yells, “Good thing the photos are still in the group chat! Haha!” and he runs to the teacher’s lounge leaving a very frustrated Keith and sympathetic Shiro in his wake.

Shiro gestures for Keith to sit on a stool and offers him some water. Keith takes the water bottle and slumps in the metal chair. Shiro leans with his back on his desk and takes a sip of his own water looking concerned for his younger brother. Even though they spend their days in the same building, it’s not often that they get to spend time together just the two of them with Keith busy with his schoolwork and Shiro with office hours and after school tutoring. 

“So, what’s up?” Shiro asks Keith.

Keith shrugs his shoulders, twisting the cap on his water bottle. He knows he can tell Shiro anything, but he has a hard time opening up to him. Plus, he has no idea how to share what’s bothering him without it sounding really creepy. Oh yeah, I’m fine except for the fact that I dreamt I was kissing the hot new kid and when I woke up he grabbed my arm and asked me if I slept well which wasn’t even that rude, but I overreacted and ran away at the first real conversation we even had? Yeah…Keith decided that some things were definitely better left unsaid. 

“Nothing really.” Keith replied. “I was just humiliated in front of my entire class for falling asleep and having your best friend take photos was just the icing on the cake.” 

“Sorry about that, but are you really feeling okay? Are you getting enough sleep?” Concern flooded Shiro’s eyes and Keith felt bad for making his brother worry so much about him. “I’m fine, Shiro. Really.” His older brother looked relieved and nodded accepting his brother’s answer. Keith really felt like he didn’t deserve such an understanding brother. 

“So…just a hypothetical question…what’s better? An edible arrangement or a new tie?” Keith asked smiling.

Shiro laughed, confused, but answered anyway. “There are still several months until my birthday! But since you’re asking, definitely an edible arrangement. But you should get me the one with the chocolate dipped strawberries. There needs to be an equal fruit to chocolate ratio!” Shiro replied.

“Wait, who said I was getting you anything?” 

“Just a hunch!” Shiro said downing the rest of his water bottle.

Keith smiled. Even short encounters with his brother were enough to lift his spirits. He waved his brother goodbye promising to visit his workshop more often and made his way out the doors toward the subway station. As he scans his subway card and walks through the small gates, he remembers that it’s pudding day and contemplates going back to school to get some but decides against it not wanting to miss Pidge. His train comes and he steps aboard and walks toward the back where he locates Pidge in their usual spot. She lifts up her bag and puts it on the ground so Keith can take his seat next to her. 

“So…” Keith starts, “mind reading…is it a thing or not?” 

“Scientifically speaking? No, I don’t think that it is. Are you talking about mentalism? Because I’ve told you that it’s bullshit. It’s mostly the reading of body language and the power of suggestion.” Pidge says matter-of-factly. 

Keith lets out a sigh of relief. “That’s all I needed to know,” he says, waving off the theory that Lance can read minds. 

“So… were you really up late salivating over Michael Moscovitz again?” Pidge asks, giving him a devious smile.

Damn. Pidge really knew him too well. Keith decided that life was a hell of a lot easier when he only crushed on fictional characters, but he also decided that Lance was a lot cuter than Michael. Damn. What had he gotten himself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find that writing from Keith's perspective is so much easier for me because I, too, crush on Lance. 
> 
> (also michael moscovitz is everything ok)
> 
> Klance song of the day: FOOLS by Troye Sivan
> 
> you're welcome and i'm so sorry


	3. Tumble Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance makes a shitty attempt at apologizing and Keith loves Pokemon?

“Are you going to tell me what’s eating you or am I going to have to figure it out for myself?” Hunk and Lance sit under a tree near the school library while they wait for their next class to start. A few days had passed since the Keith incident and Lance hadn’t had an opportunity to smooth things over with him since he wouldn’t give Lance the time of day, rushing in and out of the classes they shared before Lance could get a word out. Not that he even knew what to say to him. What do you even say to someone in this situation? 

“Aughhhh” Lance groans. He typically wasn’t the type of person to dwell over something so trivial for so long. Especially when the person occupying his thoughts wasn’t even his friend. Just what is mullet boy to me? An acquaintance? No…we’ve barely even exchanged a sentence…a rival? No, we don’t have anything to…rival…about. Lance runs a hand through his tangled hair and sighs, “It’s just this guy in my class. I said something shitty to him and I just want to apologize but don’t really know what to say, which is totally uncharacteristic for a charming, suave guy like me!” Lance dramatically places his hand on his heart as if to show Hunk how deep his sincerity ran. Hunk stifled back the urge to laugh in his face and instead thinks of a way to help his poor, overdramatic friend. 

“Why not just tell him that you’re sorry?” Hunk replies as if it is the easiest solution in the world. Although to any sane person, this would seem like a logical solution, Lance had other ideas.

“No, no, Hunk, I can’t just simply apologize! No, it has to be a grand gesture, something to show him how deeply sorry I am! I have to go above and beyond! Give him the best apology he ever had in his entire seventeen years of life! You gotta go big or go home, and Hunk, you’ve gotta help me!” Lance practically begs Hunk, not that he would have refused. He wants to see this grand gesture Lance is planning, so he enthusiastically agrees to help him come up with a plan.

“Okay, first things first, who is this this guy?” Hunk asks.

“Keith…something. I don’t actually even know his last name. But he wears a red jacket a lot and has A MULLET. Hunk. A freaking mullet!Can you believe it? I mean I couldn’t believe it at first, but the more I looked at him, not that I look at him that much, the more I kind of like it? The hair I mean. The mullet. Wait, did I just say I liked his mullet?” Hunk starts laughing so hard a tear rolls down his face.

“Seems like you got it bad, Lance.” He chokes out while wiping his face dry.

“What? No! Me? For that mullet boy? No! Listen Hunk, I’m just describing him to you. Do you know him? Can you give me some ideas on how to pull this grand gesture? I’ve got nothing!” 

“Sorry, bud, you’re on your own. Maybe you can ask someone who seems to know him pretty well? I probably know just as much about him as you.” Hunk tries racking his brain for any details about Keith he might know, but nothing comes to mind. Despite having been at the same school with him for years, the two had never conversed before. He usually chose to fly solo, and Hunk respected his space. “You have a few classes with him, right? Why not ask someone in your class about what he likes and go from there?” 

“Yes! Thank you, Hunk! I’ll do that!” Lance smiles and grabs his backpack and binder laying on the grass as the bell rings. He and Hunk do their bro handshake before going in separate directions. Despite having met each other not too long ago, they act like they had known each other for years. Lance hurries off to his last class of the day. Physics. He hopes he can find someone to help him out with Operation Keith. 

——

Lance practically sprints into class and races to his desk simultaneously kicking the leg of his desk, stubbing his toe, and dropping all of his belongings on the floor with a loud crash. “Shit!” He exclaims hopping up and down on one leg in a lame attempt to minimize the pain in his toe. A few of the students tricking in the classroom look over in his direction. The girl sitting in front of him glares at him for the sudden commotion.

“What?” Lance asks throwing his hands in the air, “Class hasn’t even started yet!” She opens her mouth to protest, “Do you ever shut up?” she asks. Once the pain in his foot stops throbbing he places his foot down and puts a hand on her desk leaning in close to her face. “Well, if you really want me to shut up, I can think of a few activities we can engage in that don’t require any talking. Catch my drift?” He smiles at her. She stomps on his injured foot and says, “Catch mine?” The other students laugh at the scene and a few have their phones out taking photos of yet another one of Lance’s lame attempts at flirting. Defeated, he limps back to his seat, receiving a few sympathetic pats on the shoulder from some of the guys in his class. One yells back, “One day, Lance. One day.” Lance gives him a thumbs up and turns his attention to Shay who takes her seat behind him. 

“Shay! Help!” He cries. 

“Oh, Lance, I would love to, but I think you’re beyond help.” She says laughing. “You have as much game as a rock playing soccer. So basically, you have none.” She takes out her physics textbook and notebook and neatly writes the date in the margin.

“No, no, not about that.” Lance waves her off, “It’s about Keith.” Lance says his name quietly so that Keith can’t hear. This gets Shay’s attention and she drops her pencil, an unreadable look on her face. 

“What about Keith?” she asks. 

“Anything!” Lance exclaims. “Anything about Keith would be helpful because right now, I know nothing about him!” The final bell rings and Matt walks into the class. “Sorry, Lance, but you’re on your own. That boy is a mystery to us all. Maybe you should ask someone he talks to?” Lance sighs and thanks her anyway. Someone he talks to? Matt begins his lecture when a lightbulb goes off in Lance’s head. Matt! He knows Keith, and pretty well it seems. He did take pictures of him while he was sleeping… I’ll ask him about Keith after class! Relieved that Operation Keith is still a go, he begins meticulously taking notes, the pain in his foot long forgotten. 

The school bell rings and Lance quickly stuffs his belongings into his Jansport and waits until Keith leaves the room before approaching Matt. Matt explains one of the homework questions in more detail for a student, drawing a force diagram on the whiteboard. Lance patiently waits for his turn to ask a question and rocks back and forth on his heels. After the student thanks Matt and takes their leave, Matt looks over and asks, “How can I help you, Lance?” Lance has no idea where to begin and in typical Lance fashion, blurts out whatever comes first to his mind.

“I was hoping you would know what Keith likes!” He says silently praying that Matt has some answers on the ever so mysterious mullet boy. Matt speaks slowly as if he is trying to comprehend Lance’s request. “You…want…to know what Keith likes?” 

“Yeah! Look, I know it’s a really random request, but I see you guys talk sometimes after class and thought, I don’t know, that you might know something about him? So, yeah…is there anything he likes?” Lance realizes how desperate he sounds and questions again why he is making such an effort for this boy. 

“Of course I know what Keith likes!” he says, “I was just…surprised? You’re also going to have to be a little bit more specific, like what’s the occasion? It’s not his birthday, so is it like a get well soon gift? Sympathy gift? A love confess—“

Lance interrupts Matt shaking his head, “No! Nothing like that! Specific… okay, well, I just wanted to get him something that says I’m sorry for grabbing your arm without even thinking and then staring at you like an idiot for two minutes because I forgot what I was going to say because your damn mullet is so distracting and I hope I didn’t scare you or freak your out and that I didn’t hurt you because you kind of look fragile, but then again you surprisingly have some serious arm muscle? And I’m sorry that when I finally spoke it was something really dumb and I wish I could take it all back and I’m sorry and can we please start over.” Lance finished out of breath and looks at Matt who is struggling really hard not to laugh and disguises it as a cough instead. 

“So…do you have any ideas?” Lance asks. 

Matt really wants to help Lance because he finds it cute how much he wants to apologize to Keith, but as much as he wants to help, his desire to mess with Keith is even greater. So he taps his chin looking for a way to mess with Keith to get back at him for throwing him to the ground and nearly smashing his phone to pieces and finally comes up with a small harmless prank. 

“Keith LOVES the blue raspberry slushes they sell on campus. Maybe you can just give him one of those and tell him what you just told me.” He pats Lance reassuringly on his back. “If you just explain what happened and genuinely apologize, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it and that your message will get across. Maybe even throw in a pun for good measure. Keith can’t resist a good pun!”

Lance thinks it over for a bit. It didn’t seem like a grand gesture, but it was Lance’s only lead on Keith, so he figured he’d better take it. He smiles, “Blue slushes, huh? Those are my favorite, too. Thanks Matt! I owe you!” Lance makes a heart with his arms over his head as he runs out of the door on his way, Matt presumes, to get a slush for Keith.

“Consider us even,” Matt says to himself. Keith hates blue slushes. He smiles thankful that ever since Lance transferred into his class, school got a lot more interesting. He gathers his papers, stuffs them into his bag, and turns off the classroom lights. Wait until Shiro hears about this! 

——

Keith walks slowly out of the school doors, not in any rush to go home. Pidge texted him earlier saying she had to stay at school late, so he thought he would just stay on campus for a while. He takes out his textbook and decides to read a chapter for one of his classes but ends up reading the same sentence over and over too distracted to get any serious work done. The cause of Keith’s distractions being none other than Lance McAsshole. Keith and Lance hadn’t spoken since their disastrous encounter and although Keith isn’t mad at Lance, exactly, he is more angry at himself for thinking that Lance was different from the other guys at their school. He didn’t know why he had high expectations for him, or why he expected anything from him at all, but he just more than anything wished things had gone differently between them. Why do I even care? I don’t care about anyone at this school, I should feel relieved. I don’t even know him! He stuffs his textbook back in his messenger bag and decides instead to go for a walk through the school courtyard.

He liked the school courtyard because few students ever went there. It had a small cactus garden and large trees that provided a nice amount of shade on especially warm days. It was pretty much empty except for a few guys tossing a football back and forth and two girls playing Pokemon Go. He hears one of them yell, “DRATINI!” and starts pulling his own phone out too because, shit, he only needed one more dratini to evolve it into a dragonair. He frantically throws berries at the pokemon and is about to throw out a pokeball when he hears someone yelling his name. 

He turns around and sees someone running toward him, but the sun is in his eyes and he can’t quite make out who it is. Wait…is that…Lance? Keith squints not believing his eyes and sure enough Lance is running straight for him, sweat beading down his forehead holding a blue slush that is spilling out from the top of the cup. Lance tries to stop the slush from spilling but instead of just slowing down, he puts his hand over the top. 

“NOO!!” Keith hears the girl shout in despair, and he looks down at his phone to see that his dratini escaped. Damn you, Lance! He is about to yell at him for making him miss out on his precious pokemon when a football bounces off the ground and slams into Lance’s head throwing him forward into Keith who falls backwards into the grass, Lance and his blue slush following suit making their final destination onto Keith’s chest. It takes Keith a second to recover, his butt throbbing from the sudden impact of hitting the ground. All I wanted was a nice, peaceful walk through the courtyard. Keith quickly comes to his senses and shoves Lance off of him, who is just staring at Keith in disbelief. Keith looks down at his shirt, surveying the sticky blue mess of a situation. He looks at Lance, his face red. He’s infuriated. 

“WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM, MAN?” Keith can’t believe this guy. Why was he so set on making his life a living hell? “You know what? I don’t even want to know! Just get the hell out of my face!” Keith strips off his jacket and starts walking away leaving a trail of blue liquid behind him. Lance’s face drops, stung by his comment, but knowing full well that he deserves it after yet another disastrous encounter. He hears footsteps and looks up. 

“You okay, man?” One of the football players offers his hand to Lance who takes it and pulls him off the ground. “Sorry about that!” Lance waves him off and runs after Keith with only one thing on his mind. I have to tell him! I have to tell him! He catches up to Keith and is about to grab his arm but decides against it, not wanting to make him even more upset than he is, so he runs in front of him, panting, begging him to allow him to explain. Keith looks reluctant but stops walking, and Lance starts talking.

“Keith! I’m sorry! I’m sorry I keep on fucking up! I don’t want any more misunderstandings between us okay, please let me explain!” He doesn’t wait for a response and keeps rambling, “None of this was on purpose, I’m sorry! I actually wanted to say sorry when I fucked up the first time, but I don’t know! Even though I’m so smooth, I somehow keep messing up when it matters. I’m sorry! I’m sorry that I grabbed your arm and made an ass of myself and sorry that I don’t know what to say to you and sorry that I pushed you down and spilled the slush I wanted to give to you all over you and sorry that this apology fucking sucks, but I just wanted to get to know you better and I don’t know! Keith! Forgive me!” Lance is saying anything and everything that comes to mind and is really just hoping Keith understands what’s he’s trying to say because he doesn’t even know what he’s saying at this point. 

For a minute the two just stare at each in silence and Lance thinks that he didn’t explain well enough and is about to try again when Keith starts laughing. Really laughing. He’s doubled over and is holding his sides and tears are streaming down his face and Lance is in shock hearing him laugh for the first time. He decides Keith has a really nice laugh and can’t help but join in. Whether he’s laughing at his apology or at the situation, Lance doesn’t care. He’s just glad Keith isn’t yelling at him. 

When Keith finally catches his breath he smiles and looks at Lance and says, “So let me get this straight…all of this” he gestures to his soaking clothes now colored blue, “is your shitty attempt at apologizing and wanting to be friends with me?” His voice no longer has an edge to it and Lance quickly nods and says, “Look, I know we got off to a bad start, and I know that I am the reason for pretty much all of it, but can we please just start over?” 

Keith pretends to think about it for a moment just because he feels like Lance deserves to sweat a little bit. Lance puts his hands into a prayer pose and puts on a very sympathetic face. Keith thinks he’s kind of cute. 

“Fine…I accept your apology. But I can’t believe that you believe you have game. Especially after today’s foot stomping incident.” Keith starts cracking up again and has a hard time getting the words out. Lance turns red, completely embarrassed now, unable to think of a way to defend himself. He thinks that he’ll just have to prove to Keith that he has major game. Major.

He takes his green jacket off and hands it to Keith. “Consider it a peace offering. You still have to get home, right? You probably don’t want people staring and wondering why you’re covered in raspberry slush.” 

Keith is surprised by Lance’s sincerity but accepts it, and puts it on and buttoning it up to cover his wet shirt. “Thanks,” he says. Lance smiles, thankful that despite everything that went wrong, he was still able to make some of it right, plus, Keith looks really good in his jacket. 

The two walk toward the school gates and Keith says, “And if we’re being honest with each other, I feel like you should know that I really hate blue raspberry slushes.” 

Lance protests, “What? No! Matt told me they were your favorite! Plus, they’re delicious, so you’re wrong! It’s the perfect combination of sweet and tangy!”

Keith counters, “Sweet and tangy? Gross. Wild cherry is definitely the best! And word of advice? Don’t listen to anything Matt says!” 

“But Matt also told me that you liked puns! Don’t tell me that was a lie too! I had one all ready for you! ICEE that my words have made you BLUE. I’m BERRY sorry to have upset you!” Lance says this staring right into Keith’s eyes, totally serious.

Keith stares at him in disbelief. “Puns are lame, dude, but thanks for trying.” Keith hates puns but think that when they come out of Lance’s mouth, they have a certain charm to them. Maybe because Lance says them with so much sincerity and maybe because he made it up just for him. 

“So no puns and no blueberry slushes? Come on, Keith! Way to suck the fun out of everything!” 

They pair argue over the superior slush flavor until they make it to the school’s entrance, the two not being able to come up with a consensus. They both pause when they reach the school gates. Keith heading in one direction and Lance in the other.

“So, uh, I guess I’ll see you Monday?” Lance asks, looking at Keith with a small smile on his face. 

“Sure.” Keith says waving goodbye, a faint smile on his lips as well, looking forward to, well, whatever this new thing with Lance was.   
“See you Monday.” 

——

Keith forgets that he is wearing Lance’s jacket until he spots Pidge when he gets on his subway. Despite her after school activities and Keith’s slush soaking, they coincidentally get on the same train. Shit. She’s going to know that I wasn’t wearing this before and I can’t just take it off since my shirt is blue… Internally panicking, Keith just sits down next to her hoping to play it cool. Maybe she won’t ask.

“Trying a new look?” Pidge asks Keith. “I don’t recall you ever wearing green before.” 

So much for that. He knows he’s a terrible liar and decides to come clean. “Uh, it’s not exactly…mine.” Keith can’t quite make eye contact with Pidge and instead fidgets with a button on his jacket.

“So someone let you borrow their jacket? A men’s jacket?” A smile creeps on her lips. Nothing gets past her.

“Yeah, this guy in my class kind of threw his drink on me and let me borrow his jacket.” Keith hopes it sounds casual.

“That was nice of him.” Pidge says, the ends of her mouth curling into a mischievous smile.

Fuck. 

“Yeah. It was.” Keith replies desperately wanting her to drop the subject. 

Thankfully she doesn’t ask Keith anything else about it and Keith changes the subject.

“How is nerd school?” Keith asks knowing how much Pidge loves to rant.

“Professor Coran is giving me a migraine! However, I did receive top marks for my last inspiration assignment! Today I had a meeting with the robotics club, and it looks like this year we might be competing with your school, so you should definitely consider joining!” Pidge loved dissecting her electronic devices and figuring out how everything worked. It was no shock that she was elected president of her school’s robotics club. Having skipped a few grades, she made history as the youngest president, which was a tremendous honor but also placed pressure on Pidge to perform. She had been trying to get Keith to join for years since Shiro supervised and guided his own school’s robotics team, but he had no interest in participating which of course was the cause of many lectures from his parents. 

“I think I’ll just watch instead.” Keith replied. He knew Pidge was only asking because she wanted to participate in an event with him, but he really hated any mention of the club. He always watched from the crowd to appease his parents and to see his brother’s proud face when his students showed off the fruits of their labor, but that was about as much as he could handle.

“Oh, okay, no problem. Come see me cream your brother!” 

“We’ll see about that.” Keith said.

When the subway finally reaches their destination, Keith waves goodbye to Pidge telling her to come over this weekend to watch a movie. She waves back and heads off in the direction of her house. When Keith reaches his front door, he rummages through his bag to find his keys and is about to put the key in the lock when the door swings open, his brother greeting him at the door.

“What are you doing here?” Keith asks as he slides past him and takes off his shoes before entering the house. 

“I missed Mom’s cooking so I stopped by. I called you three times and looked for you after school so I could give you a ride home, but you never answered, so I figured you were already on the subway.” Shiro closes the door behind him and walks by Keith but stops short when he notices his jacket. It looks strangely familiar, but he can’t put his finger on why. “Have you always had that jacket? And why do you smell like raspberry?” Shiro asks him. 

“Ugh. I’m gonna change.” Keith races to his room and takes off Lance’s jacket now wet with raspberry liquid. He puts on a fresh shirt and throws his stained shirt and Lance’s jacket in the washing machine. He makes his way to the kitchen where his mom is cooking and tries to steal some kimchi. She smacks his hand away but smiles, and tells him to set the table. Keith complies and grabs placemats while Shiro gets bowls and cups. 

“Oh, Takashi, you’re here.” Their dad comes into the kitchen and greets Shiro, sitting down at his usual place at the table. “How is your class?” He lifts up his cup while Shiro pours water into it.

“Class is going well. I was a bit worried that the curriculum would be a bit strenuous, but the students seem to be grasping the material well.” Shiro takes his seat and Keith helps his mom bring the food to the table before taking his own. He enjoyed having his brother home every once in a while, but every time he came, the conversation inevitably turned to school, and then, to him. 

“If your course isn’t challenging, your students wouldn’t learn anything new. What are you teaching them now?” He helps himself to some rice and looks at Shiro.

“Currently we are going over DC motors and variations of source voltage. A few of my students are interested in joining the robotics team for this year’s competition, so I want to prepare them as much as possible so they feel comfortable enough to participate.” Shiro eats some of his kimchi jjigae and gives a thumbs up to his mom who is smiling back.

“It’s a shame that your course is an elective. Keith should have taken your class.” He looks at Keith who is silently eating his dinner hoping that his dad won’t say what he thinks he’ll say. “Keith why don’t you join this year’s robotics competition? It’s your senior year. You won’t have many other opportunities to work alongside your brother. Plus it will look good on your college applications. You don’t have as many extracurriculars as Takashi did when he applied.” He just had to say it. “Aren’t you worried that you won’t get into your top school? Are you even involved with any clubs?” 

Shiro gives Keith a sympathetic look. “Dad, Keith is doing well in his classes. You don’t have to worry about him getting into college, and he can make his own decisions about which extracurriculars he wants to take.” Keith sighs. He hates the fact that Shiro always has to come to his rescue, but he also hates how relieved he is that he always does. His dad usually drops the subject whenever Shiro intervenes. 

“Yes, Keith will be just fine. Eat your dinner.” Their mom gives Keith more rice and smiles at her son. He gratefully accepts, and the rest of their meal goes without incident, Shiro instead steering the conversation to a safer topic. 

When Keith was growing up, Shiro was always like a superhero to him, always getting him out of trouble, taking the blame for when Keith broke their mom’s favorite vase when swinging his baseball bat around the house. Not much has changed since then. Sure, they got a little older, and Keith no longer swings a bat in the house, but Shiro still seemed to be at a place Keith couldn’t reach, but always helping him in the right direction. He was frustrated that he never seemed to be able to please his parents. He gave up fighting back because he didn’t even know what he wanted to do. All he could do was take every day as it came. 

The laundry machine buzzes signaling the end of the wash cycle. Their mom looks at Keith, “Did you wash something?” she asks. Keith remembers that he has Lance’s jacket and runs through their encounter in the courtyard in his head. The thought of Lance buying him a slush and running to him full speed to apologize makes Keith smile. “Yeah” he replies. “I did.” He takes another helping of soup.   
See you Monday, Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kimchi jjigae is so good... in my head Keith and Shiro are half Japanese and half Korean... 
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Klance song of the week: Our Love by Nico & Vinz 
> 
> Probably won't update until after Thanksgiving, so thank you to all my readers out there. Enjoy your Thanksgiving (if you celebrate!) and spend time with loved ones!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic ever (be gentle lmaoo or RIP IT UP) I listened to a lot of Taylor Swift while writing this so you should too for the ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE. More chapters to come. Stay tuned, if u wanna.
> 
> Thanks bab for motivational support lmao 
> 
>  
> 
> P.S. I love Lance so much


End file.
